Then Furry realized that they didn't know each other as well as they thought they did, because they didn't even know themselves very well.
But that was a long, long time later.
Lohui had always been a particularly calm child. Standing among children his own age, he looked like a mahogany Chinese medicine cabinet resting in a room of simple, clean Scandinavian furniture, traced with cloud patterns and draped with authentic brass-ringed pulls.
Fuzzy was the opposite. Walking among kids her age, she looked like one of those jumping candies dropped in a big handful of hard candy fudge milk candy fruit candies, bouncing on her tongue and reverberating wherever she went.
Luohui neatly combed a very well behaved parted hair, this head he combed a comb for many years, Fuzzy closed her eyes is Luohui combing parted hair, she can not think of what else he looks like. At first when boys were very popular to wear this kind of head, Luo Hui wore a parted hair, which made him look not too outdated. Then boys got interested in their hair like little birds, and they began to wonder about these messy feathers for nothing. They dyed their hair, grew it long, pinched out lots of horns like little devils, some shaved their heads, some wore pineapple hair. Lohui, on the other hand, did nothing; he still combed his parted hair as if nothing had happened and went to play his basketball. His hair didn't change much when he played.
Fuzzy once jokingly touched his hair and said, "The sky changes, the earth changes, and the love stays the same." Luo Hui's face immediately reddened, all the way to behind his ears. Because his skin was so white, he blushed red. Fuzzy was surprised and pointed at him and called out, "Luo Hui, your face is red red red!" Luo Hui's dark eyes widened in panic like a small animal caught alive while stealing food, and his face reddened even more.
If Fluffy tried to get a little closer to Luohui, he looked nervous, even though aside from his mom and dad, she could almost be considered the closest person to him. The two families were neighbors, and they'd known each other since they were kids.
Fuzzy's hairstyle, however, was always new. She cut the illustration of Aaron Kwok from a magazine with a clatter, cut off the half of Zhang Min that was resting on Chengcheng's shoulder, jumped into bed, and stuck the big, bright-smiling boy on the head of the bed. She cut the same mushroom hair as Cheng Cheng at that time, and soon Luo Hui saw Fuzzy standing on a chair, viciously grabbing a big boy by the collar and threatening the other side, saying, "Quick, call me Brother Cheng!" He thought that Furry was obsessed with this hairstyle, not to say that he would keep it for the rest of his life, but at least for one semester. But it wasn't long before he was surprised to find Furry standing in his office with her head bowed in reprimand, her hair already so short and defiantly rooted like a hedgehog's spines that if it weren't for the slender neck, he really would have thought she was a boy.
They muddled on down the line like this, time growing as long as ramen noodles.
Luohui's noodles are white noodles boiled in water, fished up, noodles are noodles, soup is soup, very refreshing. Even if you lie down a lotus egg, it is not stained with half a bit of oil star.
Furry's noodles, however, are mostly strong flavor, the face of the fresh toppings pile tip high, sometimes with a large spoonful of spicy oil, eat up the sparse and shouting addictive.
Luohui forgot about Furry when he was playing basketball on the playground.
Furry's eyes were also filled with nothing but bottles and jars of light and shadows as he sat on a high stool sketching.
Only at the end of school would they walk together. Luohui checked that Furry's schoolbag was zipped shut, unlocked her car for her, and brushed the floating dust off the cushions.
On rainy days, he flattened the hem of his raincoat for Fluffy and tied the string at the collar: "If you don't, the rain will pour into your neck and you'll get sick." On snowy days, he called, "Remember to wear that dark green woolen hat of yours, yes, the one with the reindeer pattern. Don't match the scarf color." The next day Fuzzy, still forgetting, went home wearing Lohui's hat. It was also dark green with a reindeer pattern. It was supposed to be the exact same hat picked out together. When Lohui let her have the hat, all he said was, "You guys."
On summer vacation, they lay side by side on the ramparts, a leaf in their mouths, one of them wearing one of the headphones, gazing at the sky. Or, on the rooftop used by both families***, sitting on either side of a single bamboo recliner, Lohui always managed to undo the bandages in Fuzzy's hands, no matter how intricate the pattern.
He was an attentive and calm boy, and he grew up to be an attentive and calm man.
She was a vivacious and hot girl, growing up she had no idea what kind of woman she would be.
Fluffy said, "Luo Hui you know what? The American Crane, which is endangered, still makes an overwhelmingly dangerous trip every winter, flying over 2,000 miles to the warm south."
Luohui said he didn't know. He loves tuning in to animal shows, too, but seems to prefer sloths that hang quietly in trees all day.
"If one day you're going somewhere really, really far away too, will you ask me out?"
Lohui smiled coyly, he never knew what she was thinking.
"If you don't ask me out, I'll ask you out. Can you still run away?"
Lohui had a little bit of trepidation, he loved listening to Fluffy talk, but it felt like a dream to him. He never thought about that when he was resting against the sycamore tree at school. A leaf fell onto his shoulder and he gently put them aside. So he gently put the words aside. After he put them down, he rarely thought about them again.
But when Lohui put his hands behind his head and lay on his bed next to the window looking at the sky, he would think of the words. He didn't think Furry was going to ask him out, though; she'd probably go on a date with someone else, or be asked out by someone else. Someone else, what kind of someone? He didn't know. Anyway, someone different from him.
Luohui's bed was high and wide, sort of like an ancient sleeper couch. On the right hand side was the windowsill, resting on a pot of verdant bamboos. Bunzhu was a very suitable plant for him to keep. He remembered that Furry had picked up the leaves of a jeweled flower at the entrance of the compound and casually threw them in the pot at her house, which had now grown all over the balcony. He always felt that the jewel flower was a bit unlike a flower that was not afraid of the sun, not afraid of drought, and could grow anywhere he threw it.
Luohui studied, played games, listened to songs, and grew up in this small house.
The shaggy hair was long and hung over her shoulders. A fifteen year old girl was as fresh as a small mushroom in the woods after a rain. She rarely went home with Lohui anymore. Sometimes she went on dates with other people, sometimes other people came to ask her away. They rarely hung out together during summer vacation, either.
Luo Hui still studied, played games, listened to songs, and grew up. At fifteen, Luo Hui was a tall, thin, and clear-eyed teenager. He had a pair of tranquil eyes that fell on the curved moon beyond the green hills, dipping into the watery surface of the lake.
The terrace in the fall was a good place to turn away, and Luohui left without much thought.
That day when he pushed open the door to the terrace, he felt vaguely different. There was a third person on their terrace.
A girl with her back to him.
Lohui hesitated as he tried to quietly close the door. "Lohui, what are you looking at with your ghostly head? Come here." Fuzzy saw him at a glance. "You guys play. I won't bother." Luohui didn't know why he said that, and then casually snapped the door shut.
The girl didn't look back.
Lohui was beginning to hate himself, he was always hypothesizing about the girl who had her back to him.
He hated himself for the smile he saw when Fluffy spoke to her. It was the exact same smile that Fluffy used to have when she spoke to him, as if it was a boat he had folded out of paper and placed on the water for the first time, so tugging at his heart.
The girl, wearing a light blue sweater, rather softly formed a graceful curve around her waist. Her long hair fell just right there too, slightly curled.
She sat on the small mahogany bench that Lohui used to sit on. Luo Hui wanted to hate them, yet they were both girls. Luo Hui was naturally a boy who respected girls, he felt that girls were different from boys, girls were meant to be loved and protected. So he could only hate himself.
But since then, he often saw the girl in his dreams. In his dreams, she was a slender, masked woman wearing a light blue silk dress. Whenever she saw him, she always turned her wrist and stabbed her sword without saying a word.
She also had a long light blue tassel hanging from the end of her sword hilt, engraved with the word "intoxicated".
The speed of her sword was unexpectedly slow, like looking up from the ground at the movement of the stars, how slow. It seemed that each sword was not aimed specifically at him. The blade easily approached within a foot of his side, but then swung away. Sometimes the tip of the sword was flat against the collar of his shirt, a sticking and a turning, and it looked like it was about to stab the center of the mouth, but then it diagonally brushed through the edge of the shirt. The long tassel fastened at the end of the hilt fluttered with her ghost-like figure, sometimes agile, sometimes tranquil, very beautiful.
The Luo Hui in the dream did not have a sword, only a flute. That wasn't much of a weapon. However, whenever Luo Hui plays the flute, the masked woman will collect the murderous spirit, stop the sword and gaze. The leaves in the forest fell one after another when they heard the flute, and when they fell until there was nothing left to fall, a line of faint light passed through the trees and shone on the moss-covered stone. In that ray of light, Luo Hui saw her eyes.
The sound of the flute ended abruptly.
Luohui and Furry went to a friend's birthday party together. It was a small PARTY with only a few close friends. They were invited separately, and when they arrived they realized the other was there.
"Furry, you're there too?"
"I can't come if you can?"
"That's not what I meant."
He was used to Furry's nonsense, he knew she was always nothing more than a mouthful.
He always gave in to her.
The birthday party left nothing more than those programs.
Guessing and eating wine, Luo Hui took a shallow sip and blushed.
Fluffy left a glass and right a glass of wine with the boys, Luo Hui in the side of the continuous tugging on her sleeve, she did not care, "Look at me."
She was really good too, putting down several boys.
She shone a light on their red faces with the bottom of her shiny china wine glass, and that included Luo Hui's, who looked at her glumly from the bottom of the glass.
Furry's drunken eyes seemed to realize that Luo Hui was no longer the good-natured, heartless boy who had accompanied her to and from school a few years ago.
He had something on his mind. What was he thinking about? Luo Hui at the bottom of the cup couldn't tell her, he just blushed in the molten light that shone on the white porcelain.
From both ends of the cake, it was Lohui and Fluffy's turn.
Everyone wasn't particularly fond of making jokes about the two of them. They were indeed close, yet that seemed to come naturally. Childhood sweethearts, childhood sweethearts. Even the ever shy Luo Hui didn't think anything of it.
For ten years, he hadn't taken care of her food. Furry also appreciated Luo Hui. He gave her his share of the kindergarten's Baotao candies. The honey lasagna on the breakfast table, Fluffy loved the red and green threads sprinkled on the top, Luo Hui saved it for her.
When I was a child, I stood side by side in front of the stalls of the candy man, waiting anxiously, watching the smooth marble table, a stream of amber-colored sugar poured out the dragon and phoenix patterns. Luo Hui always poured out everything he had to buy her a sugar phoenix, which was a warm bright yellow color in her hand.
"You're a girl." Luo Hui always said that.
Every time they ate the cake from both ends, they always managed to skillfully join forces and eat the cake just before it was finished without their lips touching. It had become a holdover from almost every birthday party. They were a perfect pair.
However, this time, eating the cake, Lohui was a bit distracted. He raised his eyes and looked from the other end of the cake to Fluffy, a second of gambling passing over the cake. Furry looked at him inquiringly, and he closed his eyes evasively. With a ticking second, the cake fell to the floor, a miss that had never happened since they had been paired up. Everyone was taken aback, and the birthday boy rushed to step in to round out the scene to cover it up.
Rock, paper, scissors, the winner designates a dish for the loser.
Fuzzy won Luo Hui once, and designated him to eat his favorite, phoenix-steamed swallowfish, steamed to a saucy color, with firm, salty, fresh meat. He was also told to eat it with slightly salty hometown puffed rice roasted with turquoise greens and shiitake mushrooms, which was refreshing with soup and water.
Luo Hui also won over Furry once, but he assigned Furry to eat the creamy cauliflower stew that she hated the most (don't be offended, cauliflower lovers ^_^). Watching Fluffy frown as she swallowed the cauliflower made Lohui feel guilty yet again.
"Why don't I help you eat it." Lohui said.
"I'm not going to, pig."
"I'll eat it for you."
"Bother you, pig? Give me yours to eat."
After blowing out the candles, the light wouldn't turn on again. The birthday girl cursed the annoying annoying, how she caught the power outage today. So everyone sat down around the table in the darkness in a chaotic manner. Some suggested not lighting the candles, while others fumbled with knives to cut the cake.
Lohui and Fluffy each received a piece of cake from their share and ate it in the dark.
He touched Fluffy's finger, "My cherry for you."
"Red."
"Cherries it is."
"No, I mean your face. You can see it in the dark."
Lohui's face heated up, "Fluffy, there's something I want to ask you ......"
"Hmm?"
"Actually ......"
"What is it?"
"Nothing ......"
"Do you have a fever?"
Fuzzy earnestly pressed her hand to his forehead for a moment. He felt the warmth of her hand as if it were a small teapot resting in a lotus seed green tea boat, holding a slightly bitter mouthful of herbal tea.
He was in a bit of a trance, as if he really had a fever. The small tea cup looking at the green mountain through the light fog was cool against his hot forehead.
Everyone rode together to the other end of town. Fuzzy's car broke down, so he jumped on the back rack of Luo Hui's car. As they rode, the group became a bit scattered and out of order.
Lohui couldn't ride fast enough, and Fluffy was always rushing him. Yet still, he fell out of line and got lost. There wasn't a single pedestrian in the alley, only Luo Hui with Furry, and the car made a creaking sound.
"Why are you riding so slow?" Fluffy whacked him on the back.
"Then I ride harder."
"Still slow. Can we get out of this alley?"
"It should." Lohui heard his voice hit the stone wall of the alley, plopping, while stained with some of the dampness of the stone wall, not quite clear.
"I want to ask you something, may I?"
"Don't give me the 'may I' routine."
"That's just how I am. It's like girls have some things they can only say to boys, right?"
"I don't think so, it's the same with girls."
"Who is she?"
"Her?"
"The girl on the terrace with her back to me."
"Not telling you."
"That's the first time you've ever said 'not telling you' to me."
"You wouldn't know anyone if I told you, you don't know anyone except those within ten paces of you."
Lohui was silent.
"She is what she is." Fluffy said.
"Is she important?"
"As important as you. What's wrong with you?"
"I ......"
"Are you mad at me? She's a girl and one of my best friends. Like you always say, I can't have just one or two friends."
"And I always say that girls are more important than me."
The alley wasn't as long as they thought it would be. They soon met the others and made their way to the playground.
Fuzzy couldn't figure out how the playground was open that night. But, it was indeed lit up like a theme park in a movie. All the people swarmed into the bumper car lot.
Fuzzy had been invited to ride with the other boys early, while Lohui had been placed with the other girls.
He was always the one who talked the best and was the last to fill in the gaps.
Fuzzy maneuvered the steering wheel in her hands as the car maneuvered through the field. She saw Lohui sitting in that car, helpless.
The lights in the bumper car lot gave off a fantastic light that shone on Lohui's face. He looked like a big cute doll. This man, her childhood friend, used to be her closest companion and most competent friend. He was gentle and elegant, and never embarrassed her wherever he went. Sometimes, Furry felt that Luo Hui was not one of her friends, but that one and only one, the one no one else could replace.
But, she didn't know how to appropriately express to him that, in the course of time, she would need some normal, close, good friends, boys and girls. The words, when they came out of her mouth, were wrong, because they had had that childhood as childhood friends.
Walking away from the bumper car lot, Fluffy bought two balloons and shared one with Lohui. Their hands let go at the same time, and the balloons floated unhurriedly toward the sky. Floating to the high, deep blue, velvet sky. That beautiful sky pressed down on them heavily yet softly, and they both involuntarily raised their heads, watching in amazement as that night fell silently on their shoulders, watching their balloons drift irrevocably into the depths of the night, turning into two dimmer and dimmer bubbles. And they merely watched.
After that birthday party, Lohui and Fluffy spent a lot of time together again.
That was completely different. Being together and being in the same place was different. Their school building was a combination of Chinese and Western architecture. When it rained, it was extraordinarily dimly lit, like a giant obsolete warehouse. Even a warehouse-like building has something touching about it. Because it is so tall, those details of the heart is particularly valuable. There were openwork wooden lattice windows at the corners of the stairs. Sometimes they stand there for long periods of time, watching in awe as gray lines of rain fall straight through the air.
That was the end of the most carefree years. After that came the rush of exams and leaving.
Different school, different crowd. Ten years of what you don't know about me, and ten years of what I don't know about you.
The only thing Lohui knew was that Fluffy was with her, and a whole bunch of other friends. It was as if it had never been a childhood friend, as if you had smiled and retreated into the depths of my memory.
1995 was a year of coverage. A lot of things collapsed and covered up the Lohui and Furry of the past. Out of this rubble, a new year began. At Furry's grandmother's funeral, Lohui met them unexpectedly.
It wasn't a special day, one closed his eyes and the others lived on just the same.
There was an amber sun that day, and the wind was so strong that the clear halo of light it gradually dispersed made everyone seem alone.
Fuzzy held a picture of her grandmother in her hand; it looked a little too big to be real.
Grandma's gentle face was reflected in Luo Hui's eyes, the charm of a lady from a previous era, and it made his heart flutter.
Grandma made sesame seeds mixed with sugared walnuts, black and white served in a blue-flowered earthenware jar, which Luo Hui and Furry scooped up with silver spoons.
Fresh swordfish, Grandma carefully grated out even the smallest spines with a grate, then smashed the flesh into a paste with a small hammer.
Two bowls of steaming noodles in swordfish soup on the mahogany table, and Fuzzy always grabbed the toppings from Luo Hui's bowl.
In the past, when we had a stove at home in winter, Grandma led them to make rice cakes.
The pieces of fat lard rice cakes lay peacefully on their backs on the edge of the stove, as if they were all dreaming, all fairy tales.
Grandma, such a grandmother, became a picture in a frame, always smiling warmly.
With grandma died those old times, those warm old dreams.
Through those snow-white chrysanthemum petals and tears, the girl who accompanied Fuzzy was reflected in Luo Hui's eyes.
Much like when he was a child he stood waiting by the oven of a baked sweet potato, the heat rising up and hazily creating a bouncy, jelly-like, slightly wobbly vision in front of his eyes.
It was her. Still as if in a dream, she was unmasked. The countless times I had imagined her were not as good as this real encounter.
She was nothing more than a tall, clean-cut woman with eyes worth gazing into for a long time.
Luohui even thought how nice it would be if we were three people growing up together.
In that moment, he forgave Fuzzy for her betrayal.
He was tempted to walk over to her and ask, "Where's your sword with 'intoxication' engraved on it?"
Or, "Would you like to hear me play my flute?"
But outside of the dream world, one is always inches away.
All he could do was look at them from a distance, pinching a small fallen white chrysanthemum in his hand.
Then the flower fell to the ground in his hand, and he saw Fluffy make a "come" gesture at him.
"Lohui, it's like I'm having a nightmare."
"Don't be afraid, there's ...... us." He couldn't help but look at the girl, the expression on her face elusive.
"This is Lohui." Fluffy said to her. The girl nodded at him.
"She's, you know, not to be introduced."
Lohui wanted to say he didn't know, but he just nodded as well.
The rest of the time the three stood together. The two girls leaned against each other.
Lohui, on the other hand, looked out at the people around him who were crying out in pain.
He turned his head and saw the girl. His gaze lingered for a moment, trying to get a better look at her.
But at that very moment, he suddenly realized that she wasn't the one in his dream at all. The girl standing next to Fluffy was just a child the size of Fluffy, the size of himself, Fluffy's best friend.
And the woman in the dream, elegant and elegant posture, the sword attacked the heart but did not hurt the body skin. Only time, so ruthless and intoxicating. He and she night after night in the dream flute dance sword, in the end he still lost to her, I do not know in which move.
A line of shimmering light trembled down the empty hall, not unlike the dream, no moss-covered stone, only the grandmother and the time before sixteen sleeps forever.